[AT] About me (Paw Paw)

[DAVIESW739 at aol.com]

this is from my 2nd gt. grand aunt's book that she wrote at the tender age of 
80. She was the last known surviving member of the first great wagon train to 
oregon in 1843.

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 I can remember going with a kind old uncle to  the woods to look for 
pawpaws. He told me that I was to hunt for mounds of dry leaves, for  coons were the 
best judges of pawpaws in the world, and when the fruit was just prime, they  
always gathered them into piles and covered them carefully with dry leaves.  

    I soon found such a wonderfully big heap, and digging down, sure enough, 
there they  were, bright yellow with spots of black and sweet! oh, but those 
coons did surely know when  pawpaws were at there best.  

    It is only as I think of it again, more than eighty years later,  that I 
realize and appreciate the tenderness of the kind old gentleman when he 
gathered those  pawpaws into heaps and covered them with autumn leaves for me to 
find and delight in. 

Walt Davies
Cooper Hollow Farm
Monmouth, OR 97361
503 623-0460